Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends (A Final Evening with the Illuminati) is a comedy by Larry Larson and Levi Lee, first performed in 1981 at the Nexus Theatre in Atlanta Georgia. In 1986 it was performed at the Humana Festival

Humana Festival of New American Plays

Humana Festival of New American Plays is an internationally renowned festival that celebrates the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, this prestigious event showcases new theatrical works and draws producers, critics,...

 at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville in 1986 and subsequently published by Dramatists Play Service. It has since become popular among regional theatres

Regional theatre in the United States

Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...

.

The play follows an evening church service

Church service

In Christianity, a church service is a term used to describe a formalized period of communal worship, often but not exclusively occurring on Sunday, or Saturday in the case of those churches practicing seventh-day Sabbatarianism. The church service is the gathering together of Christians to be...

 with the Reverend Eddie, a protestant minister

The Reverend

The Reverend is a style most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a...

, and his assistant, Brother

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 Lawrence, in a dilapidated church. The audience functions as Eddie's congregation. The script draws from conspiracy theories (including the titular Illuminati

Illuminati

The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...

, as well as the assassination of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories

There has long been suspicion of a government cover-up of information about the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. There are also numerous conspiracy theories regarding the assassination that arose soon after his death and continue to be promoted today...

 and the Freemasons), vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 humor, and pop culture references, such as Paul Lynde

Paul Lynde

Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...

 and The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...

 (whereby the Reverend Eddie plays a game of basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 against death

Death (personification)

The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...

).

Larson and Lee's other works include Tent Meeting (Dramatist Play Service)The Salvation of Iggy Scrooge and Isle of Dogs (Samuel French). Their new plays, The Bench: A Story of Christmas, which premeried at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre (production information available from the Alliance Theatre) and Charm School, about racism and diversity training, which won The Best New Play Award for 2007 during the Suzi Bass Best of Atlanta Theatre Celebration. Horizon Theatre Company (based in Atlanta, GA www.horizontheatre.com) is the agent for Charm School.

Larry Larson was a Loridan Arts Award winner in 2008 for his contributions to Atlanta Theatre. Eddie Levi Lee (Levi Lee) resides in Seattle Washington. Larson and Lee continue to collaborate on new work and both continue to pursue acting careers on stage and film.